Greatly increased efficiency as information is automatically distributed, including updating price lists published on the web Productivity improved as staff make decisions based on up-to-date and accurate information Lower overheads as automatic processes replace labour intensive manual procedures International growth is enabled as head office can supply and receive relevant information for careful responsive local management Significant competitive advantage achieved by low costs for new suppliers who do not have to change their own data format or systems in any way.

 

PGG Wrightson wanted information to be shared automatically so that international and local branches could operate more effectively. It didn’t take long for OrderWare to come up with a solution that also met its need for an electronically integrated supply chain.

For over 160 years PGG Wrightson has supported the agricultural sector with an ever-increasing range of products and services. Today it has operations in New Zealand, Australia and Uruguay, where it meets the needs of over 70,000 farmers, growers and processors around the world.  

The challenge

With over 2,000 staff, diverse business units, alliances and partnerships, PGG Wrightson decided to streamline its internal business processes. The company wanted to integrate its operations with those of key suppliers and business partners such as third party logistics (3PL) organisations. This would extend and integrate its supply chain and create significant operational efficiency.

Most of all, PGG Wrightson wanted to achieve more visibility of its supply chain and interface with its 3PL supplier. Information was to be obtained from a range of legacy systems, collated and shared across the enterprise, including financial, order processing and forecasting applications.

PGG Wrightson also wanted to manage its price book more effectively by automatically updating price information on the web.

The wide variety of applications, business processes and internal systems, as well as the diversity of customer formats, meant it would need a powerful and flexible integration tool. 

The OrderWare solution

After researching the market, our client opted for Fusion as the integration tool powerful enough to manage so many integration tasks.

PGG Wrightson developed its own XML standards in consultation with key partners and let Fusion handle integration with individual back-end systems both internally and with external partners. (Validation is performed as part of the transfer using XSL style sheets.)

Fusion receives incoming files automatically, checks for consistency and loads relevant information into the corporate database and legacy applications, including the financial and forecasting systems. Information is then extracted from back-end systems, collated and made available throughout the enterprise.

The interface with PGG Wrightson’s third party logistics (3PL) partner is also managed by Fusion. Transactions are sent to and from the 3PL and interfaced into the PGG Wrightson AS/400 system.

Since installing Fusion, PGG Wrightson has been able to automatically update livestock price lists on its website, meaning a welcome relief from the days of manual input. These updates come in the form of XML files that rely on data retrieved from the head office AS/400 after each day’s livestock sales.

The OrderWare solution has released value from the existing applications used by PGG Wrightson – information that was unavailable is now used throughout the enterprise. This has been achieved by working with existing data formats, which eliminated the need for expensive re-development of existing applications.

Technical summary

Fusion runs on a web server feeding through to a separate database server. The system integrates to legacy applications on AS/400, corporate intranets and web servers.